Nerve Endings Firing Away

The shipping date for my new laptop was delayed today by more than a week. Ash has her laptop’s shipment delayed twice already and each time the shipping date gets closer, it is pushed back by another week or two. We aren’t likely to lay our hand on our prized possessions just yet and this is surprising considering the glut in the market right now. I thought they would be churning them out by the millions. What could be the problem?

While IDC pegged PC market growth in the single digits, Gartner reported that the overall market grew a total of 11 percent in the last year.

Both firms agreed that Europe was a bottleneck for the PC industry. Sales on that continent slowed down considerably, possibly because of excess inventory and World Cup fever, IDC stated.

Ah-ha! So the World Cup slowed things down in Europe but I am living in frikkin United States where the majority doesn’t give two hoots about football except their own kind. I don’t think the laptop is assembled in Europe (or is it?) so by that logic, we should have gotten ours quicker.  The customer service says that our model, T60 is a popular one and hence they are waiting on the parts. Well, isn’t popularity enough to keep those scarce parts in stock? I thought this was the age of an super-efficient supply chain.Lenovo is a goddamn Chinese company for crying out loud. You guys are supposed to do this well. How could they? If you are wondering how is Lenovo doing business-wise:

IDC said Lenovo saw shipments grow by 12.8 percent to give it a 7.7 percent market share. Gartner said the company’s shipments grew 13.5 percent and its market share settle at 13.5 percent.

Except they aren’t shipping them just as quick. Damn! Just don’t make me go out and buy a Compaq or something…brrrr!